Help Remedies

Information / Credits

March 24, 2011 – New York – Help Remedies, the makers of a collection of simple solutions for simple health troubles, has launched its first marketing campaign for “help I can’t sleep,” an uncoated and uncolored sleep aid that contains no pain medicine, via San Francisco-based agencytwofifteen.
Help Remedies is a not a traditional OTC pharmaceutical brand, so when agencytwofifteen was asked to develop a marketing program for “help I can’t sleep,” it was clear that the advertising shouldn’t speak to a consumer like a traditional OTC pharmaceutical company, but rather be as simple and strangely utilitarian as the brand itself.
Rather than talk about insomnia or the frustration of being unable to sleep, agencytwofifteen moved the conversation a step beyond, to explore dreams – the funny and sometimes strange things that come to the surface once a person falls asleep.
Unlike other sleep medications, help I can’t sleep has the unique advantage of being sold in places people actually need help going to sleep, and the media strategy was designed to surround people in this mindset. The dream recommendations will be featured everywhere people may find themselves wanting to go to sleep – on demand in hotels, in-flight, in 24-hour drugstores, on late night television, online, on a mobile website and on Duane Reade’s Union Square screens, which are the last thing many people in New York see before they go home and head off to bed.
Working with production companies Tool of North America and Lifelong Friendship Society, agencytwofifteen developed nine different dream recommendation films that feature an array of funny and sometimes outlandish dream scenarios – anything from human sized puppies lamenting their lack of extra-marital affairs to a milkmaid who lives in a picture that hangs in a
dermatologist’s waiting room – which vary in length from 30 seconds to 2 minutes.
The dream recommendations are complemented by an app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, developed with We Are Licious, which “records” a person’s dreams and posts them to Facebook or Twitter. The app allows people to test whether they are having the dreams that help I can’t sleep recommended, or some other wonderful dream, and shares those dreams with their friends live. A sandman will also be roaming the streets of New York late at night, handing out hand drawn help I can’t sleep “dream recommendations.” agencytwofifteen also influenced the
product packaging, adding dream recommendations to each box of help I can’t sleep.
“Our objective is simple – people should go to sleep and have good dreams. So rather than brag about how our products don’t contain unnecessary drugs or colored coatings we decided to help people have interesting dreams,” said Nathan Frank, Chief Creative Officer, Help Remedies.
“Content should have an intimate relationship to the brand, should be easily extended and serialized and most importantly, should fit in the context of where the product is used or considered. For Help Remedies, a company that is about simplicity and humanity, we made simple narrative stories rooted in the resolution of real problems – funny and strange enough to be interesting, but not so bizarre as to lose meaning and relevance,” said Paul Caiozzo, creative director, agencytwofifteen.
The films will begin airing on late night cable in New York on March 24. The same day select films will be shown on Duane Reade out-of-home screens in Union Square. The app is available now as a free download in the iTunes App store (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dream-recorder/id423673192?mt=8), and all nine films will be available online beginning on March 24 at http://www.helpineedhelp.com/dreamrecommender.